Elevator



(No Model.)

M. HANPORD.

ELEVATOR.

Patented Feb.

[7120 671/60 7; flelanctfiono anforzi,

Nrrnn STATES PATENT rides,

ELEVATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 397,912, dated February19, 1889. Application filed February 8, 1886. Serial No. 191,174. (Nomodel.)

T 0 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MELANCTHON HAN- FORD, of Malden, county ofMiddlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement inElevators, of which the following description, in connection with theaccompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawingsrepresenting like parts.

The object of myinvention, relating to elevators, is to provide acertain and effectual means for stopping and supporting the elevator-carin case the ropes or machinery should fail, or if the downward speed ofthe car should be accelerated beyond the desired limit.

The apparatus comprises a safety car-supporting device, preferably arope hanging at the side of the car and extending from top to bottom ofthe well or guides in which the elevator operates and itself connectedwith a yielding support or cushionshown in this instance as a pistonworking in a cylinder of sufficient sectional area to produce a forceequal to the weight of the car when the air or other fluid is undermoderate pressure in the said cylinder. The car is provided with aclutch or gripping device for engaging the safety support or rope, andthe said gripping device is provided with automatic actuating mechanismcomprising a speed-governor, by which it is caused to engage the supportwhen the speed of downward movement of the ear increases beyond thedesired limit. Means are also provided for operating the clutch orgripping device by hand from the interior of the car. The entire safetysupporting mechanism is independent of the usual car-operating ropes andmechanism, and does not depend for its operation upon the tension of thesaid ropes, as is the case with many of the safety appliances heretoforemade.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of an elevatorcar and safety appliances forsupporting the same embodying this invention, thesupporting frame-workbeing omitted for greater clearness; Fig. 2, an elevation 011 a plane at.right angles to that of Fig. 1 of the actuating mechanism and governorfor the gripping device, and Figs. 3 and 4: a side elevation and planview of the gripping device detached from the car on a larger scale;Fig. 5, an enlarged detail to be referred to.

The safety-support which arrests and sustains the car when the properhoisting apparatus fails is shown in this instance as consisting of arope, a, sufficiently strong to sup port several times the weight of thecar with its maximum load, and extending from top to bottom of the pathtraversed by the car A. The said support a is connected with a yieldingor elastic cushioning device, shown as a piston, Z), (indicated indotted lines, Fig. 1,) working in a cylinder, 0, which may in practicebe about a foot in diameter and a foot and a half (more or less) inlength, and normally contains air at the atmospheric pressure, or othersuitable fluid. The piston 19 is normally retained at the upper end ofthe cylinder by a supporting device, shown as a yielding catch, (1, (seeFig. 5,) and preferably also by a counter-weight, 6, connected by a cordor chain passing over a pulley, c, with the piston, the said counterweight being sufficient to balance the weight of the piston and its redand the rope a. The cylinder is preferably provided with anescapepassage, 0, having a safety-valve, 0 which confines the fluid inthe cylinder until it reaches a certain pressure, and then permits it toescape; and the said pipe 0 may also be provided with aninwardly-opening checkvalve, 0, which permits the fluid to enter Whenthe piston is raised, but prevents the escape of fluid from thecylinder. Thus when a heavy weight is applied to the cord to the pistonb is drawn down, compressing the air below it, which exerts aconstantly-increasing pressure until, it the dimensions previously givenare employed, when the piston arrives at about three inches from thebottom of the cylinder the pressure is about one hundred pounds to theinch, exerting an upward force on the piston of over five tons, which isfar beyond the weight of an ordinary elevator-car with its load, so thatif the weight of the car were suddenly applied to the rope a it would bearrested gradually and its momentum overcome without shock, the carbeing brought to rest in a downward movement of about a foot and withouta sudden strain 011 the rope (I, thus diltfering essentially from theusual sal:'etystops, whieh eheek the ear almost instantaneously, if atall, and. are likely to be broken by the sudden impulse.

In order to eonneet the ear A with the salety-supporti (,L in ease itsother s11p1 1orts fail, the ear is provided with a eluteh or grip iingdevice, preferably eonneetied with the bottom thereot', consisting,essentially, ot:' a stop-plate, f, provided with a sht'tuldeigj,extt'inding from the side ol the ear, having a seat or groove to receivethe rope and eonstituting one member of the gripping deviee. alsoprovided with a eurved dovetail shoul- 15 derQf and has pivoted upon itthe movable inentberf" ol the gripping deviee, which has a dovetailshtmlder engagin the dovetail projeetion f, as shown in liig. I and alsohas a eurved gri ')1 1i'11g-'l"aee,j, prt'ivided with a groove or seatfor the rope u, the said i'aee being eeeentrn: to the pivot f oi. thearm j, so that when the said arm is turned up 'ard on its pivot its faceapproaches the shoulder f, wedging and gripph'tg the rope a between it;and the member l with a holding foree which inereases with the upwardstrain on the rope, or, in other words, with the downward strain on thegripping deviee derived t'rom the weight. and momentum ol the ear. Inorder to move the 111e1nber ot the gripping deviee upward, so as toseize the rope u when the downward speed of the ea r increases above acertain limit, the said niember 'f is emtneti-ted with an endlessaetuating trope,

belt, or ehain, g, passing over 1 111lleys 71 71 at 1 the upper andlower ends of the elevattiirwell, so -that: the said pulleys are rotatedin the upward and downward movement of the ear. An u 'nvard strain onthe portion olf 40 the rope 5 eonneet'ed with andahovethe movableniemhenf ol" the gripping deviee sull'i- (-ient to overeome the weight(11' the said device will raise it and eause the sa|'ety-support u. tohe seized thereby. in order to produce 115 such upward strain on therope y when the 1 speed of downward movement of the ear iintj-rez'tses,it is provided with e i1ntrolling meehanism, shown as consisting ol :1rattiwhet, 1', fast on the shal't t and adapted to be engagml by pawls1' on the pulley l1, whieh is itself loose on the said shalt, butthrough the intervention olf the said ratchet; and pawls eauses theshaft to turn with it in its movement produeed by the rope r in thedownward movement ot the ear. The said shaft-11 operates throughsuitable gearing, 1 1", (see l ig. 2,) a eentritugal governor, 7. thearms of whieh aet on a rod or stem, III, whieh is depressed by thegovernor-arms when thespeed 6o (11? the said arms inereases, so thatthey are thrownoutward hyeent ril'ugai 1'11101111'11111 their supportsIr. in the well-l no\\'n manner. The

said rod 112 aets on an arm, I), tixed upon a roehshaft, 7, and providedwith asupporting-arm, r 1, shown as jointed, and supporting the weightedend of the :rope-eheeki11g deviee, shown as a brahe-strap, I, whichextends over 'lhesaid plate is 1 the part 01: the rope 5 lying in thegroove 01" the pulley 71, and is normally held out of contact with thesaid rope by the support '1 r, which praetieally eonstitutes a vertiealtoggle-levm'. The support 1' 1", with its shall. 7) and .arm (1,eonstitutes a detent; hy whieh the brake or retarding deviee is normallyprevented lrotn operating. \Yhen the governorrodm is depressed, the arm0 will be moved dt'iwnward by it: and the roe'k-shal't 1 turned, whichmovement will break the joint olf the su 1port r 1", the upper part; ofwhich rests against the stationary stop 1*, and thebral estrap will beno longer Hltlipfii'ltltl, so that its weight will draw it; upon therope g, instantly eheeking the same, so that in the further downwardmovement ot the ear the griyjipingmein' her f will be raised relativethereto and grip the rope (1, which will then sustain the weight of theear, and will cheek its 1no1nent1n11 and bring it to rest graduallythrough the aetion ol' the eushioning deviee eonneeted with the saidsupport a.

It will be seen that the retarding aetion ot. the brake t on the rope gnot variable, i11- oreasin g and decreasing with the speed of thegovernor, but that itprodnces no effect on the rope until the speed ol'the govermin' rises to a eerl'ain liitXltill'llll amount, and. then thebralce is applied with maximum effect, and its action is not removed bythe subsequt nt decrease in speed orstopping of the governor.

In order that the resistanee ol' the pulley 7t and governor nieehanisinaetuated thereby may not retard the rope g sul'iieiently to cause thegripping; device to act, the said rope g maybe held down with a.yielding pressure by means of a spring, 1/, engaging a prt'ijee tion,11, on the said rope, and an arm or bracket, 11, eonneet'ed with theelevator-ear. The 111ova-hle gripping memherjmay also be operated by anindependent eord, 1, earried by suitable pulleys or guides to theinterior of the ear, and provided with a handle readily z'teeessihle tothe attendantinthe ear, who ean at onee operate the said gripping devieeand stop the ear, if desired, i11dea1ende11tly ol the antoniatit'rgrip-aetuati11g n'1eehanisn1 previously deseribtal.

As the rope a is never called into operation in the normal worhingot theear, and is never bent, it is not subjected to deterioratit1n by age,like the usual hoisting-ropes ol the ear, and the grip-aetnatingnueehanisin is wholly inde iendent of the ear-hoisting nieehatrism,dt'ipentfling for its operation upon the dome ward speed oi the earitsell, and not upon, the speed ol any ot the ropes or pulleys I'orminga part ol the normal ea 'aet uating meehanism.

11 is obvious that instead ol? the air-eushion any other yiehlingsupporting deviee-S11eh as a springor a series of weights appliedsueeessi vely m ight l 1e employed to grad ual 1y arrest the downwardmovement 01' the su n orb ing devieo o and weight eonneeted tht'a'ewith,and that the said salfety su 'iporting device d lOO is not necessarily arope or flexible support acting by tensile strength, but might be astrut or upright connected either at its upper or lower end, or both,with a yielding cushion.

'lhe pulley e, for the connection between the piston l) and itscounter-weight 6, may be provided with a squared arbor to receive awrench or crank for the purpose of raising the piston 1') after it hasbeen depressed in the operation of stopping the car; or any othersuitable means may be employed for raising the said piston and forholding it in its up per positionsueh, for instance, as a spring in thecylinder, which would act, in conjunction with the elastic pressure ofthe fluid, to stop-the piston.

It will be umlerstood that the cylinder 0 and shafts i and 1) and thegovernor are supported on suitable beams or frame-work like the pulleysand other overhead portions of the hoisting apparatus, and the framingor support for the said cylinder will preferably be separate from andindependent of that for the hoisting-pulleys, so as to stand and afforda support for the car in case the other framework should break or giveway.

ly the use of the ratchetand pawl between the pulley 7i and thegovernor-shaft the governor is not operatell in the upward movement ofthe car, so that the upward speed is not necessarily limited.

The dovetail shoulder on the gripping device receives the pressure thatis exerted by the members engaging the rope (z, and, being formed in thesame piece with the stationary member of the gripping device, preventsany yielding of the members with relation to one another, which mighttake place if the pressure were received on the pivot ol the movablemember.

The arm 0 on the l'OPli-hlltlft-Z) is held up against the tripping-rod mof the governor-by a connter-weight, p, or eipiivalent.

I claim l. The combination of the salTety-support with a c 'linder andpiston therein connected with said support, and a clutch or gripping 1device l'orconnectingthe ear with the safety- 1 support, and a retainingdevice by which the 1 piston is held at one end of the cylinder untiloperated upon by the weight of the carapplied to the salety-support,substantially as described.

2. The combination of the safety-support and yielding cushion for saidsupport, and for the car and its load when connected with said lthereby, and a checking device for said rope or band controlled by thesaid governor, substantially as described.

3. The safety-su1' port and a cylinder and piston therein connected withsaid support, the said cylinder being provided with an escape-passage,combined with a safety-valve in said passage, and a clutch forconnecting the car with the safety-support, substantially as described.

4. The combination of a safety-support with a clutch or gripping deviceconnected wit-h the elevator-ear, a rope or band connected with andactuated by the elevator-car, a speedgovernor actuated by said band, achecking device for said rope, and a detent for the checking device, andconnecting mechanism between it and the specd-governor, ar *anged to beoperated only by an increase of speed of the said governor,substantially as described.

5. The combination, with a safety-support, of the clutch or grippingdevice consisting of a plate provided with a shoulder forming one memberof the gripping device, and with a shoulder for engaging theco-operatingmovable member of the gripping device, combined with themovable member consisting of the pivoted arm provided with an eccentricgripping-face, and a shoulder which receives the pressure when thegripping device is engaged with the satety-support, substantially asdescribed.

(5. The combination of the safety-support and clutch or gripping deviceand its operati ng rope or band, with a governor and operating-shafttherefor, and pulley loose on said shaft that supports and is operatedby the said rope or band, and a ratchet and pawl,

} one connected with said governonshaft and the other with the pulleyloose thereon, as set forth, whereby the pulley operates thegovernor-shaft when rotated in one direction, but turns upon said gmernor-shaft when rotating in the other direction, substantially asdescribel'l.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

MELANt'VPilON HANFORD.

Witn esses:

J'os. P. LIVERMORE, H. P. Barns.

